Opinion

Caldara: Is Colorado election a referendum on Gov. John Hickenlooper?

Gov. John Hickenlooper listens to officials present information on Wednesday about damage sustained during the September flooding in Fremont County. (Carie Canterbury, Daily Record)

Forget Waldo. Where's Hick?

The big issues on Tuesday's ballot may actually be a referendum on our governor.

When it comes to raising debt and taxes, John Hickenlooper is the rainmaker. As mayor of Denver, he jumped out of an airplane to poke a hole in our Taxpayer's Bill of Rights; wore a blue bear suit for tourism taxes; rode the trolley for RTD's FasTracks tax hike; walked around town with "Sesame Street"-like letters A through I to raise property taxes; and surrounded himself with kids to increase taxes for Denver schools.

But now, in his first foray selling a tax hike as governor, he has gone missing.

Don't get me wrong. Hick will say nice things about Amendment 66 at public events. And he has been working hard as the behind-the-scenes fundraiser for the tax increase. With teachers union help, he's pulled in $10 million for the effort. He convinced out-of-state billionaires Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg to give millions to this 27 percent Colorado income tax increase.

However, selling it to billionaires Gates and Bloomberg, who will never pay a Colorado tax, is a lot easier than selling it to Coloradans who will have to pay it.

For the first time, Hick's leadership and direct connection to voters is nonexistent, as if he refuses to own the billion-dollar tax increase that he himself brought to life by signing Senate Bill 213. Is he distancing himself from potential embarrassment should 66 fail?

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In his past tax-raising conquests, Hickenlooper had a knack for building a broad coalition of diverse organizations and bipartisan support. This time, he couldn't get a single elected Republican to support 66. His usual dance partners at the Denver Metro Chamber and other business groups won't get near it.

Perhaps Hickenlooper is publicly AWOL because he is growing cautious after the scathing reaction to Colorado's recent lurch to the hard left.

He listened to Bloomberg's advice on gun control, and not the unanimous advice from the sheriffs of Colorado. That cost him two recalled Senate seats, and potentially a third with the recall of Evie Hudak. He angered rural Colorado with costly renewable energy mandates on not-for-profit renewable energy associations. He was unwilling or unable to make a decision on clemency for mass-killer Nathan Dunlap, mystifying both sides of the death penalty debate. He signed a new election law that legalizes voter mischief, and all while refusing to veto a single bill in 2013.

Add his growing romance with public-sector unions. The National and Colorado Education Associations have poured $4 million into Hick's Amendment 66 campaign. But those same unions are the driving force in Douglas County to oust the current school board of reformers. This local school board election is the most important education reform election in the country. And again, where's Hick?

The current Dougco board has brought in educational choice, allowed some students to go to private schools, institute pay for performance for teachers, and put an end to the union monopoly, all while building a budget surplus without a tax increase. It's quite the opposite of what the governor is selling.

So where is Hick on the Dougco races? How can he be in bed with the union monopoly on 66 without explaining why the cost-saving educational reforms the unions just hate in Dougco must be abolished?

The Hickenlooper absence continues. Given his previous life as a geologist, Hickenlooper understands the false alarmism in the silly debate over hydraulic fracturing. In fact, under his direction, the state is suing the city of Longmont over its fracking ban, as it runs counter to state law.

So how odd that Hick isn't connecting with voters in Boulder, Broomfield, Lafayette and Fort Collins about the folly of the fracking bans on their ballots. Assuming these bans pass, the governor may have to sue them as well. The larger threat still is that proponents will feel emboldened to put a statewide fracking ban on the ballot for 2014. Hickenlooper could find himself running for re-election on the same ballot with an anti-fracking measure that his inaction helped make happen.

Imagine this Tuesday evening we see 66 fail, the Dougco board re-elected, and four fracking bans pass. Many will wonder why Hickenlooper didn't jump out of airplanes, dawn bear suits or ride trolley cars on issues about which he claims to be so passionate.

Or maybe Bloomberg just told him there's no need to get involved directly with Colorado voters anymore.

Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute, a think tank based in Denver.

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